


Echoes of the past

by samariumwriting



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:01:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24704983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/samariumwriting/pseuds/samariumwriting
Summary: The conflict may be over, but Micaiah has a few things she still wants to ask Soren.
Relationships: Micaiah & Senerio | Soren
Comments: 10
Kudos: 20





	Echoes of the past

**Author's Note:**

> This was my piece for @spellbindingfe (on twitter), a zine based around Celica and Micaiah. It's the first zine I've owned with my own work in it so...aaaaaaaah. The final product was really beautiful and I'm super happy I got to take part! I hope you enjoy the piece too

After the official meetings were said and done, the paperwork signed off, and all the nobles who’d managed to live through the last few years of chaos shoved away, Micaiah asked Soren to take a walk through the courtyard with her. It was a space largely away from curious ears, and one that was sorely needed considering the rather sensitive questions she had in mind.

“It’s essentially a judiciary body,” Soren continued his explanation from her earlier question. “It fell into disuse over the course of Ashnard’s reign and the following Begnion occupation, and then the anarchy that followed.” 

Soren, clearly, didn’t care about the implications of calling the government she and Pelleas had been sort of in charge of an anarchy, and he continued without even batting an eye at her stare. “You can call up members of the citizen body to make judgements on things that nobles do wrong. It’s difficult to make fair, but not impossible. Is that enough?”

“Yes. Thank you, Soren,” Micaiah said. She hoped she’d remember everything he’d just said, but it was so complicated she’d definitely need a recap on it from someone. At least she understood the basic premise now. “I don’t want to keep you too much longer, but I thought I’d ask. Can I ask you a question?”

Soren’s eyes flashed with something close to suspicion. “If you must,” he said. “I’ll hear it, but I reserve the right to refuse to answer.”

“Thank you,” she said. “What I’m saying may seem a little strange, but please listen, it’s relevant to my question.” She paused, and Soren nodded. “When I was much younger, I was...driven out of my home in Begnion over a matter I could not control. I was abandoned by everyone I knew.”

“Are you sure there’s a point to this?” Soren asked. His face had furrowed into a frown, as she’d expected, but he hadn’t outright refused to answer yet. That was all she wanted.

“I suppose the question I wanted to ask was...did anything similar ever happen to you?” She just wanted to know if they had shared experiences. If there was any way they could connect over their pasts. Above all, she wanted to understand Soren.

“No,” Soren said simply. “I never had a home before the Greil Mercenaries.”

“Before Ike?” The man ever at his side. Micaiah could see the strength of their bond just by looking at them, but she’d never heard Soren express it in words.

“If you want to look at it that way.” Yes, then.

“Do you ever wonder?” she asked, glad that he was yet to snap at her, yet to push her away. Soren looked at her, a question forming on his lips before she continued. “What it could have been like, I mean. If you’d had a family back then.”

“Not really,” he said, and his voice was so even. She wasn’t seeing as much of him as she wanted to, as much of him as she’d planned, but that was fine. She was learning plenty. “The...family I got later is just fine.”

“I definitely agree with you there,” Micaiah agreed, offering a smile that Soren didn’t quite return. “There’s a phrase oft repeated here in Daein that claims that nothing is stronger than the ties of blood, and I’ve never quite agreed with that. There’s so much more joy for me in the family I’ve made for myself and the country I’ve made my home rather than the country and family that cast me aside.”

“I don’t think about it,” Soren said, and his tone told Micaiah that he’d definitely thought about it. “There’s no sense in dwelling on the past, or what aspects of it truly define you. My past is not my present, and it’s what I do in the present that decides the future. That’s what counts.”

Micaiah nodded, though she wasn’t quite sure she agreed. “I don’t wish for the past to shape me too much,” she said. “I think Tellius has had quite enough of that.” Soren only snorted in response, and the closed look that normally graced his face had returned.

It seemed her time to learn more about him had ended. With a shortness that only Soren could really get away with when addressing royalty, he was gone. She’d learned a little about him, at least. And while what he had said was true, she got the feeling that his past had shaped him far more than he was willing to say outright. She knew hers had. It was her past that had given her the internal strength to come this far, and considering what she knew of Soren, perhaps the same was true for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! :) if you have any thoughts, a comment is greatly appreciated. I also tweet a lot about my work @samariumwriting if that's your kind of thing


End file.
